Suleyman Hired to Run Consumer AI for Microsoft

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Facts

  • Mustafa Suleyman, who's a co-founder of Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence (AI) lab and was most recently the head of the startup Infection AI, Tuesday was hired by Microsoft as Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft AI.1
  • Another Inflection AI co-founder, Karen Simonyan, will serve as Microsoft AI's chief scientist and will be one of several other employees from the startup moving to a new division of Microsoft that brings all of its consumer AI products, including the Copilot chatbot and the new Bing browser, under one roof.2
  • In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Suleyman promised Inflection AI will 'continue on its mission' to make 'API widely available to developers and business the world over' while under a different company's chief executive.3
  • Suleyman left Google in 2022 to co-found Inflection AI, which raised $1.3B from Microsoft and Nvidia last June to stake out a strong position in the generative AI race.4
  • Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to bolster its position in the AI race with this move, as well as its investments in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Mistral, a French AI startup.5

Sources: 1The New York Times, 2Reuters, 3X, 4BBC News and 5Associated Press.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by TechCrunch. After failing to completely take over OpenAI, Microsoft has now used its financial might to gut Inflection AI in an attempt to conquer the generative AI world. Time will tell if the tech behemoth is a positive actor looking to responsibly develop advanced AI technologies or if it will act as a monopoly with little regard for the effects on the world.
  • Narrative B, as provided by The Guardian. Microsoft is the leader in the generative AI race, and this move will help keep the company out in front. With Suleyman on board, there's no looking back. His well-publicized concerns about AI safety will make sure Microsoft accelerates the development of the technology responsibly.

Predictions